Chelsea punish Palace

Last updated at 08:08 25 August 2004

Didier Drogba was relieved initial investigations suggested the ankle injury that threatened to spoil his big night at Selhurst Park is not too serious.

Drogba, the £24m Ivory Coast striker who has been desperate to justify his spectacular transfer fee with a first Chelsea goal saw the moment duly arrive on 38 minutes of a South London derby that somehow lacked genuine passion.

He headed home Celestine Babayaro's left-wing cross, the beneficiary of criminally negligent marking by the Crystal Palace defence, and laid the foundations for Chelsea's best start to a Barclays Premiership campaign for 10 years.

But soon after Portuguese midfielder Tiago had also drilled in his first goal for Chelsea late in the second half, Drogba felt the pain of a crunching tackle by Palace's Mark Hudson - who was booked for his dubious efforts.

And the former Olympique Marseilles ace hobbled away to be replaced by Eidur Gudjohnsen - fearing his place could be lost for Saturday's home clash with Southampton despite the reassuring words of manager Jose Mourinho.

Mourinho had said he was prepared to put up with games without a goal from his expensive striker provided he showed the same unselfish attitude as from day one in the Premiership. Mourinho gave him another start at Selhurst Park despite the two sitters Drogba missed at Birmingham last Saturday and the reward duly arrived.

Perversely, though, now might be the time when Drogba takes a rest. Mourinho also has three other strikers Adrian Mutu, Gudjohnsen and Mateja Kezman operating at full-throttle and has not even employed Irish wing-wizard Damien Duff yet.

Drogba's injury just "bad bruising"

Coach Steve Clarke said: "We have put ice on Didier's ankle and hopefully it is only just bad bruising. It shows every sign of settling down before Saturday - if he is selected."

That might be a big if with Mourinho. At Palace he rotated his squad with all the panache of his predecessor Claudio Ranieri - but declined to attend the post-match media inquest to explain himself.

The result left no need for explanations, though, and by the time Tiago swept into sub Mutu's crossfield pass to lash a second Chelsea goal on 73 minutes, there was never much doubt about the result.

Palace huffed and puffed and glowed with commitment. Manager Iain Dowie said he was proud of them and could not fault their commitment but they had nobody to match the talent of Chelsea's Joe Cole.

And Dowie knows there are is a long hard Premiership winter ahead unless he can purchase more quality.

A bad miss by former Chelsea defender Danny Granville in only the 10th minute could have turned the game. He missed with a clear header and Clarke said:

"It was just about our only real alarm. We have defended well in all three games and although we know we can add to the quality of our play, that will come - and is coming."

Two one-nils followed by a two-nil shows Chelsea are moving in the right direction. Palace certainly did not look like scoring against them and although Mourinho's side are hardly the game's great entertainers they are picking up the points - and you would pay plenty for that.

Dowie is a realist, too. He said: "We have learned that if you drop off for a minute at this level you get punished. That is what happened with both Chelsea goals. I was hopeful we would get a result but I am an optimist.

"Now we have to start putting points on the board again. We have got one after three games but we will need more than that after six.

We don't know who is going to be around us in the lower end of the table but we play Middlesborough and Portsmouth both away next and Manchester City at home.

"These are the matches we need points from - more so than Chelsea and Arsenal."